About SCPI
RICK AND NAOMI COLEMAN
Southern Cross Permaculture Institute
QUALIFICATIONS
Certificate of Permaculture Design (1992)
Diploma of Permaculture
Design Education and Community Development (1994)
B.Ed Monash University (Naomi) (1990)
Diploma of Permaculture APT (2004)
Rick and Naomi Coleman with Bill Mollison in his garden,
while guest tutoring for a Permaculture Design Course in Tasmania.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
We have managed and evaluated projects for a number of aid agencies, including World Vision Australia and Community Aid Abroad (Oxfam). We have worked with various organisations in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, Palestine, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Peru, and Nepal as well as Australia.
Many global environmental problems recur throughout the communities of the "developing world". We have the necessary skills and experience to effectively:
- Consult with members of organisation and communities to determine needs and most urgent problems to be addressed
- Assess current situation and cultural requirements
- Identify and analyse priority areas for project development
- Determine needs and resources required for sustainable development
- Develop appropriate training for a range of participants, from government officials to rural indigenous farmers
- Implement training with a focus on practical strategies that are cost effective, adaptable, and immediately achievable with long term benefits
- Design and implement sustainable community management strategies and empower communities to become more resilient and self reliant
- Train staff to conduct future training
- Train volunteers who may work on projects
- Provide technical expertise in soil rehabilitation, erosion control, water management, treatment of waste water, crop and animal management, appropriate technology and more.
- Present written reports including recommendations for future development priorities and technical details.
OUR BACKGROUND
Southern Cross Permaculture Institute was established under the name Permaculture Education and Design Systems in 1993. Our objectives then, as they are now, were to provide high quality Permaculture education that could be accessed by a range of people. We were concerned that the people who could benefit most from learning Permaculture were not able to access educational programs, both in Australia and overseas.
We began by offering courses at Adult Education centres and ran a number of successful programs, which resulted in the formation of a local network of people who had attended the courses in the Mornington peninsula area.
We then started conducting Basic Permaculture Courses through government subsidised programs for the long term unemployed, teaching Permaculture and food growing skills, eventually accrediting the 36 hour course through the Australian National Training Authority.
We began teaching Permaculture Design Certificate Courses in 1993 and have continued to conduct regular courses on our property as well as for other organizations. We have also run workshops for other Permaculture educators on using interactive teaching strategies to involve people in their learning of science and related concepts, a field that has interested Naomi in her professional life as a primary teacher and as a lecturer of student teachers.
We moved to our property in 1994 and began to implement our own Permaculture system, determined to practice what we taught, and to become more highly skilled so that we could work overseas. We became active in various Permaculture organizations, helping establish the Permaculture Melbourne Education group, attending the 5th International Permaculture Convergence in Scandinavia in 1993, assisting with organising the International Permaculture Conference in Perth in 1996, writing and publishing articles promoting Permaculture in many magazines, and lately being involved with Permaculture International Limited.
In 1998 we travelled overseas and worked in a volunteer capacity on Permaculture projects in Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, and India, also working in Palestine assessing a Permaculture project as independent consultants. With our two children we travelled the majority world, teaching Permaculture in isolated rural communities where food security was a priority, and a sustainable approach such as Permaculture was a necessity.
Returning to our property in 1999, we continued to prove its fertility by producing more children as well as a number of food crops! Our place is a work in progress, Rick continues to work on overseas development projects, Naomi teaches part time at the local primary school in between having children, we share our lifestyle with students on our courses and the many volunteers who stay with us and contribute to the development of our property. Life is busy but bountiful.
In 2003 we have begun the process of applying for organic certification through the Organic Herb Growers Association.
We have continued to consolidate our property, running regular PDC courses on our site and in 2005 returned to teach in Tasmania.
In 2006 we are fully organically certified. Rick has just returned from working in Aceh, Indonesia for an NGO called IDEP in Tsunami affected areas. Rick provided training at the Greenhand Field School, a permaculture centre in Aceh.
In 2008 Rick returned to Kenya, Africa to assist an orphanage to become more self sufficient in food and income generation, as well as to provide employment pathways for the children at the orphanage. Thanks to a donation by Deeper Yet Permaculture Inc., a volunteer organisation in Victoria that we helped form, Rick was also able to revist the project he had worked on in Moyale in 2000. He was astounded by the uptake of permaculture in the area he had worked, and was greeted in the communities by people who remembered his training program 10 years before.
2009 has seen us overcome some major challenges, after Rick was crushed by a falling tree whilst teaching a PDC course in Tasmania, breaking 5 vertebrae, and requiring fusion surgery. His strength and endurance, and his will to survive has seen him recover to an amazing level. We are now back to running courses, completing consultancies, and planning overseas consultancies for 2010. Rick is also able to work on the farm once again, and with the help of many wwoofers and friends, the farm is back into full productivity, with new raised vegetable gardens, and fruit trees blooming with potential food.
SCPI LOGO
We changed our name to Southern Cross Permaculture Institute in 2000 to reflect the more global nature of our work and to provide an Australian identity to present to overseas agencies with whom we work. We continue to work on a number of projects both in Australia and overseas.
Our logo represents connected elements of a sustainable Permaculture system within a snake in the shape of Australia, under the stars of the Southern Cross. The snake symbolises our respect for the indigenous people of Australia.
We thank Dorothy Maniero, a WWOOF volunteer who stayed with us while we were discussing the development of the logo, and who listened carefully to what we wanted and designed the image for us.